MP's Week Nine Picks

[The Gipper]

MP Parris is right on target with his assessment of ND!
Saying the players brought in are overrated just because they chose to go to ND is pure bunk.
The kid Floyd from Minnesota who just committed to ND after going to the USC game was rated a 5 star by Rivals and the No. 6 overall player in the country. He was down to ND or the Bucknuts. He chose ND AFTER watching them lose to USC. Point is, he is rated a 5 star player and it makes no difference in his rating if he went to ND or became a Bucknut!

[NittanyLions94]

Leno just had a good joke on his show that went something like this:

Leno: The governor of Nebraska is suing God....That's right, he's suing God for not stopping disasters.

Crowd: OOohhhhhhhh

Leno: If God could do something about disasters, don't you think he could've done something about the Notre Dame football team by now?

Crowd: (Laughter)

Me:

[MParris86]

Its not as if these kids that commit to ND are getting their recruiting rankings bumped up because they receive a ND offer or end up committing there. These kids are "graded" by the recruiting services early in the process and 75% of the players keep their star rating until they sign letters of intent. A few get bumped up a star and a few get knocked down. But with the national scrutiny that ND gets already, don't you think the media and recruitniks would cry foul if each and every ND commit rose in the rankings as a result of becoming Irish?

I work for Rivals.com and have a say (albeit minor) in how many stars are associated with recruits in Ohio. We formulate rankings based on an number of things:

1. measurables
2. statistical production
3. video highlights
4. volume of scholarship offers
5. quality of scholarship offers
6. potential

Never have we decided to bump up an Ohio kid because he has an OSU offer. Nor have we credited a kid more than he is due because ND is after him. Rather he is referred to as a BCS school recruit or, in our neck of the woods, a "MAC-level prospect."

[The Gipper]

More fodder that supports MParris and shows how weak Willingham recruited and how bad his last class was:


Look at 2004 ND recruits:

Terrail Lambert (starting CB)
Junior Jabbie (career backup tailback who left team and came back)
Anthony Vernaglia (career backup who started the season with first team as OLB. Lost job to true freshman).
Leo Ferrine (career backup who is 3rd team corner).
Darrin Bragg (career backup at QB, moved to receiver, quit team, came back as show team QB).
Justin Brown (career backup at DL who starts this year when healthy, but has high ankle sprain).
Darius Walker (two year starter, in NFL).
David Wolke (backup QB, transferred to Western Kentucky)
Maurice Crum (2nd year starter at LB).
Ronald Talley (backup DL who transferred to Delaware).
John Kadous (backup OL, who quit football still in school)
Abdel Banda (back problems forced him to give up football prior to sophomore season)
Brandon Nicholas (transferred to Colorado)
Chauncey Incarnato (transferred to Indiana because he couldn't play. Couldn't play there either, then transferred to a I-AA school where he is a backup).
Justin Hoskins (transferred to I-AA)
Christopher Vaughn (kicked out of school for legal troubles. Transferred to Louisville where he was subsequently kicked off team).
Tregg Duerson (son of famous alum Dave Duerson). Not offered by any other I-A program. Ended up leaving the team and staying in school. Scored his first career touchdown a couple of weeks ago as an intramural football player in interhall football.

So that is the current senior class.
Only the following guys still with the team:
QB Darrin Bragg
TB Junior Jabbie
DL Justin Brown
LB Anthony Vernaglia
LB Maurice Crum
CB Terrail Lambert
CB Leo Ferrine

As an addendum, how would you rate the class as it stands now?

Out of that group, only Brown, Crum and Lambert play many meaningful minutes.

A senior class should be counted on for much, much more than that, but as you can see they are pretty much non existent.

The junior class is not much better with a couple of guys no longer with the team and the '05 class' top rated player, D.J. Hord, coming off a ruptured achillies which is a career altering/ruining injury. The only other four star player in that class was Joey Hiben, who quit the team to concentrate on architecture, then transferred to Minnesota where he is currently a 3rd team walk-on defensive end.

Top players in the junior class are David Grimes (injured last three games), Pat Kuntz, Turkovich and David Bruton who is turning into an stellar Free Safety.

[NittanyLions94]

Didn't Willingham bring in the guys that got Weis all his wins though? Quinn, Samardzja, McKnight, etc?

[MParris86]

4-1 week. Praise the Good Lord!

[PSU-MAN]

Good job MP!

[The Gipper]

Way to go MP!
Figures Willingham would bite you in the ...

[JayCol]

Originally Posted by MParris86

Its not as if these kids that commit to ND are getting their recruiting rankings bumped up because they receive a ND offer or end up committing there.

Totally agree. However, there should be no denying that ND coaching does a poor job with their recruits. ND is currently ranked what? Say #70. No way ND has a poorer average recruiting class than #20. One can easily go to scout.com or rivals.com and see how ND has done over the past four years.

Essentially Weiss didn't get the kids ready in the "off season". Big mistake that ND made was thinking a big time NFL guy (Weiss) would have success in college football. NFL is very different. The big challenge in college is getting the kids to keep working hard, keep them motivated and keep them disciplined, most aren't playing for million dollar contracts. This is where a coach like Tressel shows his value. On the flip side I sincerely doubt Tressel would succeed in the NFL with its highly paid big ego athletes.

JC